


Happy L-Day.  Love, Rose

by Lyledebeast



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Birthday Fluff, Cooking, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, GingerRose Week 2020, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:48:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24218383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyledebeast/pseuds/Lyledebeast
Summary: Hux has never celebrated his lifeday before and doesn't understand the appeal.  Rose educates him.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico
Comments: 6
Kudos: 44





	Happy L-Day.  Love, Rose

Hux’s lifeday was in the summer. He knew the date for the purposes of decades worth of paperwork, but it had never had any further significance for him until recently.

“That’s next week!” Rose had cried, sitting up in bed when he told her. “Kriff, that doesn’t give me much time.”

Hux stared at her from his pillow, bewildered. “Time? Time for what?”

“Well, to plan, of course! We have to celebrate!”

He frowned. It was true that he had much to celebrate. The war was over. He shared a home with someone he loved. He had new job and opportunities for friendship: all things that seemed more worth celebrating than being yet another year older.

“We don’t have to have . . . a party, do we?”

“Yes,” Rose replied, nodding, her expression deadly earnest. Hux saw the corners of her eyes crinkle just a moment before a mischievous grin spread across her face.

“Of course _w_ e have to have a party,” she said, bending down to kiss him. “But that doesn’t mean we have to invite anyone else.”

Rose had wanted to dine out, and Hux had reluctantly agree. But when the day came, an unseasonably severe thunderstorm came with it, and a tree limb fell, damaging part of the greenhouse roof. Hux had been delayed by the need to update his design to build the roof back, more resistant to future weather events. So it was with some trepidation that he made his way home, three hours late.

He came in quietly to see Rose already in the kitchen, bent intently over a cutting board. The sharpness of the onions hit his nose and his eyes simultaneously as he put down his satchel. Why did he always seem to come in while she was chopping onions, he wondered, blinking already. Rose hadn’t noticed him yet, and for a moment he hoped he might get past her and into the bedroom where he might have a few more minutes to word his apology. 

The onions defeated him again. The closer he got to the hallway the stronger the sulfenic acids became, and just as he reached the hallway he had to stop to wipe at his eye.

“Ah!” Rose cried, making him jump, “you’re home! Come here for a minute.”

Hux rubbed his eyes again. “I . . . no thank you.”

Rose grinned. “One onion is enough, huh? Well, that was one question. Go see what’s on the stove.”

He crossed the kitchen behind her, relieved to put some distance between himself and the onion. On the stove he found the rimmed baking sheet Rose normally used to make roast chicken, but there was no chicken on it tonight. At least, he didn’t think the oddly-shaped white meat-like pieces were chicken.

“What does the fish smell like?” Rose asked over her shoulder.

Hux lowered his face near the sheet and inhaled. When Rose first started asking for his help in the kitchen, he had been anxious, wondering if it was some kind of test, and what the consequences would be if he failed to pass. Now, he knew better. Rose was still learning too, and she wanted a second opinion. Between the two of them, they were sometimes right and sometimes wrong. But, so far, no one had gotten dangerously ill.

“It smells like . . . I can’t really smell anything,” he said finally.

“Huh. Really? It doesn’t smell like the ocean?”

Hux wondered how long Rose thought it had been since he’d been near an ocean.

“It’s supposed to smell like that . . . if it’s fresh.”

He turned around to reply and found her glaring at the pieces of fish, her lips pressed into a tight line.

“At least,” he offered, “It doesn’t smell bad.”

Rose sighed and she turned back to the vegetables.

“Could you just put a little salt and pepper on it and put it in the oven?”

“On both sides?”

“Yep.”

Hux stood next to Rose just long enough to wash his hands. The onion fumes had subsided a bit, and she was slicing a bright red pepper now. They were his favorite vegetable, and one of the few sweet things he enjoyed. His stomach growled; he had been too busy for more than half a sandwich at lunch. It was remarkable how soft his short time working on the greenhouse had made him; in his years with the Order, he had never taken a lunch break at all.

“What next?” he asked once the fish was in the oven.

Rose, pulling out a big bag of salad greens, seemed more content. She smiled when she looked up at him. “Oh, I just have the vinaigrette left to make. Why don’t you go and see what’s on the table?”

Hux crossed to the small breakfast table just off the kitchen, the one Rose had stipulated was only for eating, and the first thing caught his eye was a bouquet of white flowers lining tall stems. They stood out from the vase like white swords, and it wasn’t until he got closer that he saw the pale pink centers of each bloom. Their aroma was subtle, not overwhelming like that of other flowers Hux had encountered on this planet, but so light and sweet that he didn’t want to stop smelling them. As he moved his face closer, he noticed the tiny card nestled in the vase. He plucked it out, holding it open with his thumb. In Rose’s tiny scrawl, he read:

Happy L-day

Love, Rose

He grinned, gently folding the card in his hand. She had said that to him before, but there was something new and thrilling about seeing it written down. He began to think maybe there was something special about this lifeday observation after all.

There was also a bucket in which he recognized his favorite dry white wine chilling next to the sweet one Rose preferred and that Hux had tasted only once. He suspected the contents of the white bakery box were also more suited to her tastes, but pulled back the lid to make sure. The sight of his first name, or something reasonably close, surprised him. “Armitag” was clearly written in red on the small white cake, but the “e” at the end overlapped with one of the rosettes that surrounded the outer rim, distorting it beyond recognition.

“I’m glad I didn’t have them write “Happy Lifeday,” Rose said beside him, making him jump.

“Sorry, I . . . I didn’t realize you were so engrossed.”

She was smiling, but he could sense her anxiety all the same. Did she really think he wouldn’t be pleased?

“The . . . ah, the flowers are lovely,” he said, beginning to feel a little self-conscious.

“Yeah, I wanted to get the freshest ones they had. These are gladiolus. I thought they looked . . . striking.”

In the pause, he could sense she was looking for word that would appeal to him. He would’ve described them as pretty, but he supposed her not realizing that wasn’t surprising.

“They smell nice, too. I . . . no one’s ever gotten me flowers before.”

To his relief, she grinned, the mischief back in her eyes. “Really? You amaze me. You mean there wasn’t a florist on the Finalizer?”

Hux smiled back. “No, nor a baker.”

Rose looked down at the box. “I know you’re not a fan of cake, but it is traditional.”

“Is it?” Hux raised an eyebrow. Rose loved sugar as much as he disliked it. “Well, we can’t break with tradition, can we?”

Rose’s eyes crinkled. “Absolutely not.”

The timer beeped in the kitchen.

“That’s the fish,” Rose said. “Hey, why don’t you go ahead and open the wines while I get it out. I’Il put the salad by the stove, and we can just serve from there.”

Hux breathed in as Rose made her way back to the kitchen. He could smell the fish now, he thought. And it smelled amazing.

It turned out that the fish didn’t do much more than smell good. The flavor was very mild, showcasing how timid Hux had been with the seasoning. “You have to put enough to taste it, Armitage,” Rose had told him in the past, but she was kind enough not to mention it this time. It was also a little dry, and Hux couldn’t take credit for that. But the pepper slices were soft and sweet, and just a little briny from the abundant capers Rose had added. Even the onions were delicious now that their fumes and been cooked away, leaving them a deep golden brown. Hux smiled when he tried the salad. The vinaigrette was so sharp he wasn’t sure if Rose could handle it until he noticed its absence on her plate. She had made it just the way he liked it.

“Everything is wonderful, Rose.”

A flash of skepticism crossed her face before she smiled graciously. “Thanks. I’m glad you think so,” she replied, taking a sip of her wine.

Her palate was so different than his, drawn to sweetness in everything from alcohol to breakfast cereals. Her favorite cheese was creamy and mild while the only one he liked was hard and salty. There had never been the slimmest chance of either of them taking the other’s tea. It was rare for them to have wine with dinner because they could never agree on the kind, but, as Rose said while pouring her second class, this was a special occasion.

“Are you sure you have enough?” Hux asked. Her plate was mostly vegetables, her fish fillet mostly untouched at the side.

“Oh, don’t worry,” she said, eyeing the counter where the bakery box had been moved to make room at the table. “I won’t be going hungry.”

Once he had cleared away the dinner dishes, Hux tried a single bite of the thin slice of cake Rose cut him out of courtesy, and it was as he expected: so sweet it was all he could do to swallow it.

“It’s lemon,” Rose informed him. “With a vanilla buttercream frosting. I thought about ordering lemon frosting too, but I thought that might be a bit much.”

It was a more than a bit much, Hux thought, but he kept it to himself.

“I do like lemon.” And it was true. On chicken, under a heap of capers. He loved capers, but he was reasonably confident they weren’t an acceptable cake flavoring.

“Me too. Vanilla and lemon are my favorite cake flavors.”

The corner of Hux’s mouth quirked up. “Ah, that explains it. My lifeday was a mere pretext.”

Rose shrugged and served herself a slice that look a quarter of the cake. “I think you could be on to something.”

When she had finished her cake and another glass of the saccharine wine, Hux offered to take her dishes, but she waved him away and stood up.

“Oh, no. I have something else in mind for you. I got it started for you while you were taking up the plates from dinner. It’s in the refresher.”

“Another surprise?” What could possibly be there, of all places.

He followed Rose to the door, eyes going wide when she opened it.

“Is that steam?”

“Unless I set the curtain on fire without realizing it. Breathe in, Armitage.”

He inhaled, surprised again by the aroma. “It’s tea. Did . . . did you put tea in the tub?”

Rose laughed. “Don’t worry. I didn’t dump your precious stash of tarine in bathwater. It’s in the bubbles. It’s not quite tarine tea, but I thought it smelled nice.”

Hux stepped into the fresher, close enough now to see the tub, which was all over white.

“What is the purpose of these?”

“To smell good and feel luxurious.”

“Ah.” He turned around to look at her.

Rose smiled and shook her head. “You’re supposed to get in it. After you undress, of course. I’ll wash up while you’re having your bath.

He raised an eyebrow.

“What, you think I don’t remember how?”

“It’s not that. I just . . . that’s my job.”

Rose smiled, a little patronizing, and stood on her toes to kiss him. “I know that. But let me take care of it this time, okay? You relax.”

With that, she left Hux to contemplate the tub.

He undressed. The temperature reminded him of how the kitchen felt when Rose was making a stew, and the association wasn’t exactly pleasant. Soaking in tub full of bubbles, however nice they smelled, seemed an inefficient way of getting clean. But he supposed he would humor her. That seemed to work out in his favor more often than not.

Once he was lying in the water with his back against the bottom of the tub and the bubbles and their scent encircling his neck, he began to feel better about the idea. The heat felt good on his shoulders, stiff from sitting at his desk looking at blueprints all afternoon. And it was very relaxing. Soon, his eyelids began to droop, and a few minutes later, he let them shut.

He awoke with a jolt at the sound of knocking on the door. “Armitage?” came Rose’s voice. “Did you fall asleep in there?”

Hux rubbed at his eyes with wet fingers; he could feel his cheeks warming even further with embarrassment. “I . . . maybe.” The warm water had been too soothing, Rose couldn’t be surprised.

He heard her laugh through the door. “Well, don’t stay in there for too long, okay? I’ll think you’ve drowned!”

With a final deep inhale, Hux sat up. His skin still felt a little slick from the oil Rose had also added to the tub, so he decided to take a quick shower before he left. He certainly didn’t want to be slippery for whatever else she had planned. It was a tantalizing prospect.

After his shower he blotted as much water from his hair as he could before reaching for the drier Rose kept by the sink. She thought it too fussy and barely used it herself, but Hux didn’t know how he’d done without it. Before, he’d had to rely on gel to keep it smooth as it dried, but Rose disliked the way it cracked in her fingers. And the extra time was a small price to pay to feel her hands in his hair.

When he was satisfied that it was completely dry, he brushed his teeth and turned for the bedroom in only his towel. Rose was sitting on the bed with her back against the headboard, wearing the pajamas he’d bought her a few months before. The top half of them anyway. When the weather turned warm, she had asked him to buy her something lighter than the flannel she had been wearing, and the result was “shorts” that came halfway down her calves and a top that hit her at mid-thigh. Hux was mortified; Rose thought it was hilarious.

“You took long enough,” she said with a grin as she rose to her knees. “And I bet you feel like a prune. Give me your fingers.”

Hux always marveled at how tiny her hands were, and how spindly his own fingers looked in contrast. She took one of them between her thumb and forefinger to examine it, gently stroking the pad. She always treated him as though he was the small one, and he knew it should shame him, it made him feel warm too.

“Yep, it’s a good thing I called you when I did! You might have dissolved completely.”

When she smiled up at him, he couldn’t resist bending down to kiss her, his hand going to the bun at the back of her head. She always put her hair up before sex, knowing that he would take it down. It was their ritual.

She kissed him back with more heat than he’d expected so soon, pressing both palms against his chest. Hux’s skin went hot as she felt him, sliding her hands slowly down his belly to rest on his hips. His body had changed since he’d been living with her. He would always be skinny, he knew, but his belly was flatter now, and his slight muscles were more defined. His work was more active now, and he was certainly eating better quality food. Rose didn’t compliment him; she knew it would only make him frown. But her appreciation showed in the way her hands lingered over him, and he leaned into her touch.

When she reached to fold in his towel that held it around his waist, she pulled it loose with a hard tug, dropping it on the floor.

She cupped her palms over the ridges of his hips. “Lie on the bed.” It came as a suggestion more than an order, but Hux could feel the blood pooling in his groin already. He obeyed at once.

The cold buttons on her pajama front pressed against his bare skin as she lay on top of him. She kissed him again, surprisingly soft this time. When he reached for her hair in another effort to take it down, she wrapped her hand around his wrist and held it down against the bed.

“No, you just lie there.”

It was enough to make him writhe, but he held back. For all her confidence, Rose was still much smaller than him. Most of his past lovers could hold him still with one hand, but Rose had almost lost her balance when he’d moved too much beneath her before. He shuddered when she brushed her lips against the shell of his ear and then kissed down his neck. His back arched when she flicked her tongue over one of his nipples. She didn’t usually go for them so soon, and he gasped at the unexpected pleasure. They were extremely sensitive, and Rose never failed to exploit that, but she didn’t suck or pinch them as she normally did. Instead, she ignored the stiff nub and looked up at him.

“Armitage?”

He huffed with disappointment and raised his head. “Yes?”

“What would you say if I . . . wanted to try something different?”

“Different?” It was too vague to be intriguing or worrying. “I suppose I’d have to know what it was.”

Rose frowned, and to his consternation, got up, sitting down by his side.

“That’s the thing. I want to surprise you. I mean, it is your lifeday and all, and I didn’t get you a proper gift.”

He opened his mouth to object, but she pressed a finger to his lips. “I shop and cook every week, Armitage. Trying to get things you especially like isn’t special enough.”

Hux didn’t agree with that, but he decided against interrupting her. As she slid her fingertips down his throat and they came to a stop on his chest, he found himself growing more intrigued. What was special enough for lifeday?

“Well . . . I’ve liked everything you’ve done to me so far.”

A smile tugged at the corner of Rose’s lips. Hux shivered when she circled his other nipple with her fingertip, feeling it tighten too.

“Oh, have you?” she asked, innocent. “I’m glad to hear that.”

Hux’s only reply was a pitiful whine when she brought her thumb into play, dragging it back and forth over his nipple with light strokes. His breath grew shallow and his cock began to fill. As much as he liked the rougher treatment, it was almost more than he could bear when she touched his nipples so gently. He was on the verge of begging when she moved her hand to his belly, just above his nearly erect cock

“I think you’ll like this,” she went on. “I mean, I think you’ll like it a lot. But it’s not exactly something we’ve done before.”

She drew her bottom lip between her teeth, glancing away, and Hux understood. She was nervous.

“You may do whatever you like,” he said with confidence. “I trust you.”

Her eyes met his, and she smiled. 

“Okay. There’s something I need to get though.”

Since they had stopped using condoms, they hadn’t used much of the lube in the bedside table, but the sight of it now made his cock twitch. He knew what she had in mind now. At least, he hoped he did.

Rose knelt between his thighs, steadying herself with a hand on one knee. Hux licked his lips, struggling to control his breathing. She had never touched his asshole before deliberately, and least he didn’t think so. There had been a couple of times when she had reached behind his balls and her fingers had strayed. He knew she must have felt his cock jump in response—it had been in her mouth at the time—but he had said nothing, and her fingers had retreated.

As she poured lube on her first two fingers, worried lines appeared on her forehead again. 

“Let me know if this uncomfortable. If I need to add more. I just . . .”

Hux smiled. She was so cute when she was nervous.

“Just what, darling?”

Rose smiled back, her cheeks pinking. “I’ve never done this before. Not to a man, anyway.”

“None of your other lovers liked it?”

She shrugged. “Well, none of them would let me try.”

Hux rolled his eyes. He had known men like that too.

“Just start with one finger and go slowly at first. I . . . do like this. Quite a lot, actually. But it has been a while.”

She found his prostate much faster than he expected. Faster than she expected too from the way her eyes widened when he gasped.

“Sorry!”

“No, I . . . don’t be sorry,” he panted. She touched the spot again, with more certainty this time, and his legs trembled.

“Is that . . . good?” 

Hux’s laugh turning into a moan when her fingers moved again. His eyes fell shut, pleasure overtaking him.

“Kriff, look at you,” Rose whispered. 

He was already flushed to the center of his chest and could only imagine how red his face must be. Lower still, the pink head of his cock peaked out of his foreskin, leaking clear fluid onto his belly. She hadn’t touched it, and he knew he would go off in a moment if she did.

Instead, he whimpered as she withdrew her finger.

“Don’t worry,” she reassured him. “I’m not done. I just want to put a little more lube on.”

With two fingers inside him, it wasn’t long before Hux was in a desperate state. He could keep still no more than he could keep quiet, writhing and moaning with each brush against his prostate. It had been so long since anyone had touched him like this, and he could feel his release building low in his belly.

Rose made a noise of disapproval when he placed his hand just over his navel.

“Don’t be so impatient, Armitage,” she chided.

It took a moment for him to understand what she meant.

“I . . . no,” he managed with some difficulty between deep breaths. “Not reaching for . . . it just feels good.”

“Does it?” Rose looked suspicious as her free hand moved from his thigh to join his. Hux pushed her hand lower, covering the back of it with his palm until it was flat against his belly, just over the slight trail of hair that led down to his cock. At the same moment, Rose spread her fingers a little wider inside him, and Hux saw stars.

He didn’t like to cry out when he came, but there had been times when he just couldn’t help it. His back arched and his toes curled as pleasure coursed through him.

He was still trembling with aftershocks when Rose spoke.

“How . . . how did you do that?” Her voice was ragged.

Too pleasure addled to understand the question, Hux said nothing.

“You had an orgasm,” she observed, “but . . . you didn’t.”

Looking down, Hux saw what she meant. His cock was still hard against his belly, and when Rose gingerly reached down to cup his balls he groaned, his cock twitching.

“Could you come again so soon? I mean, could you ejaculate?”

Hux whined when she gave his balls a little squeeze, and precome dribbled from the head of his cock.

“Definitely”

He expected Rose to take him in her hand, but instead she moved back from her position between his legs and then straddled him, the bare skin of her ass resting on his thighs. She’s almost naked already, Hux thought, and his cock jerked again.

When she leaned down to kiss him again, he slid two fingers into the breast pocket of her pajamas. She gasped when he found her nipple through the fabric, teasing the nub until it stiffened. 

She sat up, struggling with the buttons until Hux lifted his hands to help her. He undid the first button, then the second, but while he was still working on the third, Rose pulled back her top to expose the breast he hadn’t touched yet. With a smirk, she cupped it in her hand. Hux dropped his by his sides. This always mesmerized him. Her hand was too small for the task, so the top of her breast bulged over them, her wide nipple peeking between her fingers. Hux reached up to drag his thumb over it, and it grew stiffer and stiffer. When he pinched it between his thumb and forefinger, she moaned and dropped her hand away. Emboldened, Hux cupped her other breast, pushing them together and thumbing both nipples at once. These had felt so foreign to him at first, but the more he touched them, the more he liked them.

He was just sitting up to take one in his mouth when Rose rolled her hips, dragging the heat of her cunt over his cock.

“I think . . . that’s enough,” she rasped. Hux, who could feel another orgasm building already, didn’t argue.

He was afraid he would come almost as soon as he was inside her, but fortunately Rose was close too. When the motion of her hips grew erratic, he reached between her thighs to gently circle her clit until she swore, clinching tight around him. He came again only a moment, almost not caring this time how loud he was.

Still inside Rose, he pulled her close.

“So,” he panted in her ear as she lay against his chest. “When is your lifeday?”


End file.
